Doubtless
by Angleico3156789
Summary: Ariadne has always wondered how doubtless Arthur could be. Always wishing he would show a little bit of himself, even if it isn't pleasant. Just so they can become a little bit closer A/A ONESHOT


_Disclaimer: Inception does not belong to me, however amazing and wonderful the movie is..._

A/N: After the movie, I couldn't stop thinking about it. These two were always in my mind. I love Ellen Page. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is so hot in this film. They're great together. So here's to Arthur and Ariadne.

**_She'll come back. They always do._**

Ariadne didn't know what brought her back. She felt as if she had no choice. Her head was constantly nagging at her of the wonders of dreaming. The **pure creation**. There really wasn't anything else like it. One taste of it and she was left wanting more. She couldn't get it off her mind. The architecture classes in Paris seemed like a joke compared to dreaming.

But meeting Mal, was like a splash of cold water. Seeing Cobbs create a prison of his memories and watching him go through each one, over and over again. It was eating away at him and she could tell. She was so curious to what was gnawing at Cobbs. She was so curious of what level B contained. She was just so damned curious.

Curiosity was her drive to come back, most would say. But that wasn't really all to it. It was the feeling of control you had in your dream, the creation, and the excitement. She couldn't really put her finger on it but it brought her back again and again. She would wonder sometimes if the others felt that way. Cobbs, Eames, Yusuf, Saito…Arthur. She couldn't imagine Cobbs enjoying his job. He took the jobs to drown himself into dreams and forget about reality, about his kids, his death sentence and most of all, his dead wife. Eames was another story. He may pretend to joke around and amuse everyone but deep inside she knew that he was serious about all this. Yusuf was a chemist and he knew the consequences of dream exposure. Yusuf was probably the one who found all of this least enjoyable and most dangerous. That was why he was hesitant and suspicious about everything. Saito was nervous. He was nervous about the importance of the job, about the danger, about almost everything. But he held himself together like the trained Japanese corporate he was.

And finally, there was Arthur. Arthur was different. She couldn't read him. She couldn't even if she tried. There was the way that he held his face and emotions away from everyone else that told her that he was probably the most serious about this job. Inception wasn't his specialty. Arthur was used to extraction with Cobbs. So to say that he was on the ball wasn't quite right. To say he was a perfectionist wasn't right either. He went further than that. Arthur knew every single detail and every single flaw of the plan. He was the one who talked to Ariadne the most. He was constantly asking about her structures, her settings, her plan. But other than the job, she couldn't really tell what he was hiding beneath that slicked back hair of his and orderly three-piece suit. But Ariadne wasn't worried.

She could tell by the way Arthur talked, gestured, moved, that he was confident that they would have the job in the bag. Everybody had a part in this assignment but it was Arthur who wrapped everything together. He was not hesitant and didn't seem to have any doubts, or so it would seem to Ariadne.

But Ariadne was curious about Arthur, more curious about him than any other team member. Her mother always called her nosy. Ariadne liked to be in control. She liked to be in control and to know what others are thinking. She can read emotions and faces just like she could read Cobbs'. Deep inside, Ariadne knew that people had boundaries, but she just didn't really care about all that. She wanted to dig deeper than the surface. She wanted to taste everything, to know everything. She was born with it. So to say Ariadne was frustrated with Arthur's nonchalance was an understatement. She was fuming with curiosity and frustration. She just had to know. She just wanted to know.

Even so, Ariadne was just a tiny bit scared. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she was afraid if she asked, she'd cross an invisible boundary in Arthur's world. And she didn't know what would happen if she did cross that line. What would calm, straight-faced Arthur do if she crossed that line? She was scared because she knew, as much as she wanted to deny it, that she liked Arthur. She liked the way he spoke to her, with care and gentleness. She liked the way he was organized, so much unlike her. She liked the way he treated her, always with kindness. And most of all, she liked the way Arthur's eyes would glimmer when she spoke to him. He wasn't like most men who would hear but not listen. Arthur listened to Ariadne when Ariadne spoke to him. And he'd always reply with something reassuring or kind. So that Ariadne wouldn't worry. But still, Ariadne was a curious creature. She could never stop the nagging feeling of wanting to find out what was beneath Arthur's hard yet gentle exterior.

The night before the flight, everyone had left except for Ariadne and Arthur. They were going over the plan and the structures. Arthur looked up at the ragged clock on the warehouse wall. It was past midnight. He looked over to Ariadne.

Ariadne was absorbed in her work. This was normal for her. Her architecture classes were based on the student's ability to focus and create. Professor Miles had been her mentor and her judger. He would make sure that she was completely immersed in her work and not be distracted.

"I think it's time that we take a rest, Ariadne."

Ariadne snapped up from her model of the hospital. She was surprised to say the least. It was usually Arthur who would stay back the latest even after she went home.

As if Arthur could read her mind, he retorted,

"Cobbs and I are alike in a way that we are so used to the dream world that normal human functions such as eating and sleeping have become distant for us. Don't get me wrong, fatigue and famine still get to me but not as much as it would to you."

Ariadne smiled a little. Even though Arthur may seem to be emotionless, but he was the one who would notice people around him and their situations. She opened her mouth to refuse but Arthur cut her off.

"Listen to me Ariadne, it'll do you good."

Ariadne stared at him.

"How do you do that?"

He stared back.

"Do what?"

"Be so sure of yourself and have no doubts?"

Arthur remained silent.

Ariadne continued

"I doubt myself all the time. I doubt that my structures will work in the dream. I doubt that I might not wake up from the dream. I doubt that I'm the only one who thinks like this. I doubt this entire job will even work. I doubt that all of you are just playing with me, lying to me. How do I know this entire heist is just a joke? How can I trust you all? How can you be so calm all the time?"

Throughout Ariadne's entire rant, not once did Arthur blink. His face revealed no emotion. But Ariadne could see his eyes. In those dark chocolate eyes were indeed feelings and emotions stored up behind years of training. Dreaming had worn him down to this.

Finally, Arthur spoke softly,

"This is normal. To doubt is normal when you first begin. Everything is difficult to grasp in this dream world that we've thrown you in."

Ariadne scoffs,

"That must have been years ago for you. You don't seem to doubt this plan, Cobbs' judgment, me or yourself for the matter. You just take everything as it comes and accept it as it is. Is that your job? Is that a point man's job? To not doubt?"

Arthur smoothes his mocha vest lined with beige stripes. Then he reaches into his pocket to grasp his totem, the red die. Then he answers a very simple,

"No."

Ariadne waits for his reasoning and his wisdom, but it never comes. She looks up to his face. He was concealing something. She sighed. All the team members were concealing something except for her. She revealed all of herself, all of the time. She felt so vulnerable all the time. When she was sure that Arthur was not going to say anything, she turned to go.

"I doubt."

His simple reply made Ariadne stop in her tracks. She spun around and faced him. She looked him in the face and saw something for once that she never saw before.

Shame

"I doubt all the time. I just don't show it. In the dream world, it's important to keep yourself together and keep calm in the most dangerous of times. As a point man, I have no room for error and for emotions to take over. It happened once in a dream. I lost my control and I risked the plan and a team member's safety. In the end, she never woke up. That's why I promised myself to never again lose my head during a job."

Ariadne smiled. It was the first time Arthur has revealed anything about himself. This was the first time he'd shown himself to her. But Ariadne was curious to whom this 'she' was and why Arthur seemed so shaken by the mention of her.

Ariadne took a chance.

"Who is this team member?"

Arthur looks away. He hesitates until he looked at Ariadne again. She spoke to him softly.

"You don't have to tell me, but it may feel better if you tell someone."

Arthur started gently.

"She was a team member of mine. Before Cobbs and even before Mal. We were…involved in a case of extraction. A highly dangerous case. We went deeper into levels than we should have. We were young and naïve to think that we would have gotten out of it. She trusted me to get the idea while she would distract the mark. Before I even got to the idea, the mark found out that he was dreaming and started torturing her…I… she…"

Arthur took a break. Ariadne almost missed it but she could see the flashes of unshed tears in his eyes. Arthur looked at Ariadne. She urged him to go on with her eyes.

Arthur took a shaky sigh and continued.

"I was nervous and edgy. I started to worry and get antsy. I started to lose my control. I thought if I shot her in the head she would wake up. As I told you, we were young and inexperienced and I didn't research as carefully as I should have. So I took my gun… and shot her straight between the eyes."

Arthur stopped. He stared at the warehouse wall behind Ariadne. She was not going to push him anymore. She had gone deeper than she had wanted to.

Arthur started again.

"I managed to get out with the idea. But I never saw her conscious again. She was my childhood friend. And I trapped her in the dream world. That's why I swore to myself that I will never make the same mistake ever again. So I haven't screwed up yet since that assignment."

Arthur looked at Ariadne. Her eyes were shining with trust and warmth. He knew he did the right thing to soothe her but he was not sure how this might risk them in the dream world. He sighed and decided to leave it at that.

Ariadne was glad that he had told her that. She always managed to wheedle the truth out of most people. She also suspected that this 'team member' was more than a childhood friend to Arthur that he said. But she decided to leave it at that.

Ariadne laughed and said,

"You know Arthur; you might just make this job work after all. No wonder Cobbs trusts you unconditionally."

Arthur calms down and gives her his sly grin and offers her his hand,

"Now can we go get some rest?"

Ariadne raises her eyebrows suggestively,

"Together? You weren't the gentleman I thought you were after all."

Arthur chuckles,

"Ariadne, you are-"

Ariadne lifts her finger to his lips and kisses him chastely on the lips before walking away slowly away still facing Arthur.

Arthur touched his lips gently and looked at her surprisingly,

"What was that for?"

Ariadne smiles gently,

"For revealing yourself, for…taking a leap of faith."

Arthur grins and looks at her mischievous eyes and her large grin.

Ariadne slyly asks,

"Are you coming, I thought we might get something to eat."

Arthur scoffs,

"At this hour?"

Ariadne laughs,

"I have my ways."

She threw her head back and laughed as she skips away jubilantly. Arthur watches on curiously at the young woman walking away from him. This was definitely going to be an interesting yet dangerous job. Arthur followed Ariadne out of the warehouse, the whole while thinking how much she was like Mal. And this was exactly like the start of Cobbs and Mal. And he thought of his childhood friend, Alice. And how they were involved. And he thought about how that ended up. But pushing the thoughts aside, Arthur decided to take a 'leap of faith' while clutching on to his red die.

_~END~_

A/N: Please review. It would absolutely make my day. I will take constructive criticism but no flames please and thank you. Any suggestions would be nice too. Now go and click that nice review button!


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